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Sporty's or King School

Which is the better to get for online training? Looking to make the purchase in the next week and start my time for private pilot then into IFR. Friend is in for about 20 hours, i told him to look at king school, but i just saw sporty's....Thoughts?

I took the Sporty's online course. Logged in from home, coffee shops, work and did my training. I passed the written, oral, and checkride with no problem. You will need supplemental material with it but it does a really good job of taking some complex concepts in aviation then visualizing it for you.

They can even give you an endorsement for the written when you complete it.

I wouldn't bother with either course for the PPL. The subjects are not that intensive for the Private and the most important materials are provided free by the FAA. (Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowlegde, etc) If you want a textbook, the Jeppessen worked fine for me.

The instrument is a different story, and there are several courses I have heard that people like. I'd wait to buy the instrument materials until you are close to finishing the private.

I did the Cessna King school, and after going through all of the CD's found out I'd covered all of the material for the written in the process. I used the practice test program that came with the set and got >90 on the written without much additional study. It was among the best computer based trainings I've ever used.

I wouldn't bother with either course for the PPL. The subjects are not that intensive for the Private and the most important materials are provided free by the FAA. (Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowlegde, etc) If you want a textbook, the Jeppessen worked fine for me.

The instrument is a different story, and there are several courses I have heard that people like. I'd wait to buy the instrument materials until you are close to finishing the private.

I agree to an extent. However, persons like myself are not good at book studies and need some visual references to grasp it better. The animations on powerplant and aerodynamics and video of how performance landings should be performed helped me tremendously.

Which is the better to get for online training? Looking to make the purchase in the next week and start my time for private pilot then into IFR. Friend is in for about 20 hours, i told him to look at king school, but i just saw sporty's....Thoughts?

I used King for PPL written and checkride and did pass each. Also using King for IFR. Never used Sportys but have not heard anything bad about them. They're probably pretty similar.

I've used the King stuff previously and also watched the freebie PPL DVD that Sporty's sent to me.

Honestly, the Sporty's stuff put me right to sleep. Literally.

There are a bunch of free information out there via FAA documents such as the Airplane Flying Handbook (AFH) and the Pilots Handbook of Aeronotical Knowledge (PHAK) that you can get free from the FAA in digital form or buy from Amazon realtively cheaply in a printed form.

There are also a bunch of free (and very inexpensive) websites out there with a bunch of multimedia information such as www.faa-ground-school.com

It really depends on how you learn. If you like to learn from books, then there are a bunch of options, including Rod Machado's books and the FAA books. I personally use a combination of books and multimedia items such as audio CDs and online video presentations.

Ostrich99

Last edited by ostrich99; 09-11-2009 at 09:59.
Reason: incorrect name for AFH

You will find a lot of opinions on this topic. There have been a bunch of threads on this topic.
Here is a post of mine from 3 years ago:

You may want to do a search of the forum - this topic comes up often. I pasted my comments from an earlier thread below.

I have used the the King Schools test prep for my private, the Sporty's DVD course for my instrument and the ASA course for my commercial.

My thoughts are - the King stuff is purely test prep software. They prepare you to pass the written test. Their courses are not "ground supplements" on "how to fly". They are a bit corny, but they do a good job getting you ready for the written test.

Sportys was more like a ground school that had some test prep software built in. I liked the format much better that the Kings. Sporty's had much more detail on "how to fly" and that is what I wanted for my instrument rating.

The ASA Commercial program is more about passing the written but a lot cheaper than the King course. I don't think it is quite as good.

The Kings (John and Martha) prepared a course in conjunction with Cessna that is used at Cessna Pilot centers. I have heard some good things about it but have not seen it. (Jeff_S used it and I think he liked it).

My usual boilerplate - go check your local library. Mine had several shelves of videos and DVD's on flying. You can get a sample of several different courses.

Good luck

Jim

As follow up - I still watch some of the IFR DVD's from time to time. After watching a few times - I skip the Richard Collins "Air Facts" segments. Those can put you to sleep.

I know the OP asked about online instruction, but I'm just curious if Sporty's DVD course allows you to resell the materials after you're done with it.

King schools doesn't allow that. You don't discover it until after you've bought it, but their DVD courses come with a license that is for a single computer and it forbids reselling.

I'm not 100% positive but I think the Sporty's one is for your DVD player, not computer so yes you can resell it. I liked the fact that with the online one I could access it from any computer and though I couldn't resell it, they offered money back if you failed your exam.

While Sporty's tries to be more comprehensive in what they teach you, what I don't like about their videos is that the narrators drone along in an absurdly slow-paced, monotone voice while they show you totally irrelevant stock footage of airplanes flying around. I could go on but I won't.

The Kings have great ways to help you retain information (I still remember the tricks about port wine and LDA standing for Localizer Darn Angle). The main thing I don't like about them is that they are rather self absorbed and must have their faces on the screen at all times.

I used the Cessna computer based training for my ppl training, but I hated it. Put me to sleep, annoying humor, bad green screening. Ended up having to supplement my ground school with gleim, which is awesome.

Try the gleim online ground school. Only $99, and it's hard not to get in the high 90's if you study their outlines and online presentations.

I liked the Sporty's online course well enough...not sure exactly how useful it actually was. Probably used the online written the most (which can be had elsewhere for free) but it's a nice enough product.

They never responded to multiple emails about a few bugs in the system though...that are still broken as of a few months ago. (ie. take a written...now take another one...won't work unless you log out and back in, as the submit button is missing....which is quite a pain if you are trying to review section by section.) So, I can't actually recommend a company that doesn't respond. Both to their form and direct email...

Otherwise, content was nice. When I do my instrument...will probably use their instrument version, along with Machado's book, and avwxworkshops.com for weather.

I,m just starting but did the Sportys DVD,s Recreational for $99 and It shows all the different manuveres (SP) and I found it real interesting. Plus you can sit in front of the TV and review a hour a night if you want. Add a Gleim Private Pilot manuel and a 09 Gleim test book and your well on you way.
I you have time AOPA has Many, many interactive courses you can take for FREE and many have video. As mentioned before Gold Seal also has a LOT of free learning.